LIRR: New escalator by end of ’16

Commuters are frustrated about the slow pace of repairs on a new escalator at the Rockville Centre Long Island Rail Road station, where the completion date was previously moved back.

Rockville Centre was one of six stations on the Babylon line that the LIRR deemed most in need of replacement escalators. The other five were Amityville, Baldwin, Copiague, Freeport and Lindenhurst. The railroad allocated $14 million to fix the aging equipment.

Work at the Rockville Centre station was originally scheduled for completion at the end of September, but the LIRR pushed back the finish date to the end of the year. LIRR spokesman Sal Arena said that the old escalator was taken out of service on May 23 in order to start demolition and prepare the site for construction.

“Some projects cause temporary inconveniences, which we do our best to minimize,” the LIRR said in a statement. “This particular project, the replacement of escalators at six Babylon Branch stations...was planned as a two-year undertaking to be completed by Sept. 30, 2016. Installations are complete at Amityville, Lindenhurst and Freeport. However, because of unforeseen structural issues at some of the locations, we are a little behind. The work at Rockville Centre should be done by the end of December. … We are working as hard as we can to finish as soon as we can and we appreciate the riding public’s patience and understanding.”

Arena said that there were no known structural issues at the Rockville Centre station, and that the delays were caused by problems found at another station, which he did not name.

On Oct. 26, a construction crew was working in a fenced-in area at the station, but a manager declined to comment on the station’s progress. The shell of an escalator was visible, but Arena could not say whether it was the old one or the new one.

For now, train riders can access the platform by using either the elevator or the staircases on North Village and North Park avenues. There is also a third, narrower stairway between Village and North Centre avenues.

Baldwin resident Leslie Tishler, who comes to the station every day with her rolling duffel bag, said she has trouble carrying it up the stairs. Nonetheless, she said, “There’s no reason this should have taken this long. I can understand a normal amount of time to make a repair, but this is absurd.”

Tishler was skeptical about the new completion date. “They keep delaying it,” she said. “There’s no explanation, and there’s no place to make a complaint where we can get an answer.”

A Rockville Centre resident who said he was a daily commuter, but declined to be identified, said he saw a woman fall down one of the stairways recently. She was able to walk away after being “down for a few minutes,” he recounted.

“She probably would’ve taken the elevator or the escalator,” the man said, “but it’s just overcrowded trying to get down.” The elevator is not the preferred choice for commuters because of its small capacity, its slow speed and the stench inside.

Potential concerns extend beyond the escalators and staircases. Directly under the platform, on the west side of Park Avenue, are unfinished sidewalk repairs that are not taped off. There is a sandy area between the finished sidewalk and a dug-up curb cutout, and a bigger hole just feet away, with another exposed curb.

There was also wood and concrete debris in both areas. There was a knocked-down “Sidewalk Closed” sign on the south side of the intersection of North Park and South Station Plaza, but nothing warning pedestrians of work on the north-side intersection at Front Street.

North Park itself has been under construction since May and that work is scheduled to be completed this month.

Seven-year village resident Kevin Jeffers said he has not been affected by the construction. He said, however, that he believes funds could have gone to other projects.

“I’m sure there are some people inconvenienced by it, but I’m not sure if it was money needed to be spent,” he said. “I’d rather people walk up the stairs. There’s plenty of infrastructure. You look around town, there’s potholes everywhere. It’s still a bumpy mess. Those things where it impacts the cars and the children, I think, are far more important than an escalator.”